In response to a request for applications from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Long Life Family Study was initiated to create and enroll a cohort of families enriched for exceptional longevity (EL) in order to discover factors that contribute to healthy aging and survival. The first visit was between 2006-2009 and established the familial cohort. During this visit, blood or saliva was collected in order to obtain DNA for genotyping.

Annual follow-up has been completed on participants since their enrollment. Between 2014-2017, a second in-person visit was performed to obtain deeper, longitudinal phenotyping of the existing cohort. The third in-person visit, originally set to begin in August 2020, was redesigned as a split visit with a video component and remote blood draw followed by an in-person visit once the health and safety of COVID-19 was better controlled. A fourth visit is starting in 2026. This visit will be an expanded telephone visit with a blood draw and stool specimen collection for already established LLFS participants. During this visit, the LLFS will also expand and recruit additional families and involve two new field centers at Georgia State University and Johns Hopkins University to include African-American families.

From the collected blood samples, LLFS has used available techonology to create genetic data on participants (genome wide SNP chip and short read whole genome sequencing), as well as multiple OMICS data on participants (whole genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-sequencing, metabolome, and proteome). During the funding for the fourth round of visits, we will expand the genetic data to long read whole genome sequencing. Our goal is to combine all these data sources (genetic, OMIC, and phenotypic) to better understand EL.